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Shanghai (archive photo)
Photo: Gil Sofer

China okays Shanghai mikveh

Local Jewish community leaders convince authorities mikveh ‘not a spa’

Chinese authorities authorized the Jewish community in Shanghai to build a mikveh for the first time since World War Two, this after community leaders convinced them that it ‘is not a spa.’

 

The mikveh was inaugurated last Sunday.

 

In 2002 some 300 Jews lived in Shanghai, and today they number about 1,500; only two of them are Chinese, with the rest being Jews who had immigrated from all over the world.

 

“People came to is and asked for a mikveh,” said Chabad Rabbi Shalom Greenberg, who operates the mikveh together with his wife Dina. “Before there were a few women who had to travel all the way to the mikveh in Hong Kong; we had to explain to the Chinese what a mikveh is and convince them that is not a spa.

 

“The officials inquired as to why we couldn’t use one of Shanghai’s spas, but they eventually understood the need,” he said.  

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.14.06, 18:37
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